Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Nightmare Stanley Cup Final, Pirates do Nothing to Ease the Pain

Nights like last night make you wish you would have just stayed at the office.

We’ve got about the worst Stanley Cup (from a Pittsburgh perspective) that we could have asked for. The Flyers finished off the Habs last night, beating them 4-2. The Flyers just have that look. They’re getting hot at the right time, and at this point, it’s probably more about momentum than talent. And who do our most hated rivals play? One of our most hated former Penguins, Marian Hossa. To be fair, we all know how fun it can be to watch Hossa play, the guy is a Datsyuk-like defensive forward. But he still sucks.

So as Pens fans, our choices are to root for Chicago and Marian Hossa or the Flyers. Pens fans wouldn’t root for the Flyers if they were playing the Taliban. Honestly, the choice is easy. Though nobody wants to see Marian Hossa lift the Cup, nobody wants to see 26 Philadelphia Flyers lift it either. So we become Blackhawks fans this week, which in perspective, is not difficult to do. They’ve got a great core group that is a lot of fun to watch (Kane, Toews, Byfuglien, Keith, etc). If nothing else, it should at least be an entertaining Stanley Cup Final.

Alright, so one game last night didn’t go our way, that’s alright, we’ve still got the Pirates. Sweet Jesus, did I just write that sentence?

The Buccos jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a Ronny Cedeno home run, and Brian Burres was looking to be in control. Then, in the fourth, he decides to do his best Ryan Vogelsong impression; walk out to the mound, drop his drawers and just take a giant dump.

The look of utter defiance on his face makes it one of the greatest images ever.

Karstens comes in during the fourth to add his own creation to Burres’ pile.

The rest of the game consisted of the Pirates blue-balling their fans into thinking they could come back. False. Pittsburgh fans try to find something less painful to watch on tv, like The Hills.

Some notes:

-Delwyn Young was the best Pirate last night. He’s never really gotten consistent enough playing time to gain a lot of confidence, but the past two years, he’s shown flashes of brilliance.

-Aki Iwamura needs to be traded/deported. Don’t care which.

-Pirates are always going to have trouble winning a game when McCutchen and Garrett Jones combine to be 1 for 9.

-Should the Pirates trade Ryan Doumit? In a later post, I’ll tell you why it may not be the craziest thing.